THE RESEARCH
Background
Household slaves had long been a part of the world of Mediterranean Europe. War captives were sold to wealthy families, who put them to work as servants or artisans. In the 15th century, Venetian and Genoese merchants led the traffic in captured Slavic peoples – the word “slave” derives from “Slav” – as well as Muslims and Africans. Many Europeans were disturbed, however, by the moral implications of enslaving Christians, and in the early 15th century the pope excommunicated a number or merchants engaged in selling such captives. Africans and Muslims, however, were sufficiently different in religion to quiet those concerns. European traders found it most efficient to leave the capture of men and women for slavery to Africans, who were willing to exchange the captured slaves for European commodities. When Africans began to convert to Christianity, merchants were forced to concoct a new argument to justify slavery based on differences in skin color rather than religion. The curse of Cain (see below) became used as an explanation for the dark skin shades of people in various parts of Africa and as a justification for racism and slavery.
• When God confronted Cain about Abel's death, God cursed him, stating: “The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand..." (Gen. 4:10-12.)
• When Cain complained that the curse was too strong… God responded, "Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.", and God "set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him." (Gen. 4:15).
Capture
Enslaved Africans (who could have been bought, sold, captured, kidnapped, enslaved as punishment or for acts of war) were taken by African traders and marched or rowed by river canoe, to be sold to European traders. On the march, African people would be chained together in either two’s or three’s or as many as 30 or 40. Sometimes they were forced to carry items on their heads, such as bundles of elephants’ teeth, corn, ivory and hides or water in skin bags. They would be forced to walk or march through the interior for many days or weeks until they reached the coast. Some would be chained and crowded into river canoes and sailed along routes from the interior to awaiting European slavers on the coast. Others were taken to the forts to await sale. At the slave forts the enslaved Africans were placed in holding cells where they sometimes waited for many days or weeks for the slave ships to collect them. The conditions in the forts for the enslaved women, men and children were inhumane. Having arrived from the long march or by river canoe, people were exhausted and hungry as well as disheartened and mentally and emotionally distressed. Many bore open wounds from acts of enslavement either by raid or war. A ship’s surgeon would examine them and eliminate those who were not fit for the journey. As a result of the suffocating and unhealthy conditions in the holding cells, many Africans died while waiting to be collected. There were also gender differences in the experiences of the enslaved, for example the women were targets for rape and physical abuse.
Conditions of the Middle Passage
The image of a slave ship with Africans packed below deck like sardines, provides the most graphic image of the Middle Passage. ‘Dancing the slave’ was a phrase used to describe when enslaved Africans were brought above deck and were made to ‘dance’ as a way of exercising their muscles after the long periods of cramped positions below deck. The men were packed and secured in irons to platforms below deck, and had to either crouch or lie down in the tightly confined space. They were made to lie in their own vomit and filth. The women and children were placed in a separate section below deck or in a secured area above. The unhygienic and overcrowded conditions led to the spread of such diseases like dysentery, or the flux, infected people being forced to stay below deck, sometimes until death. Their bodies would eventually be removed and thrown overboard. The living would experience the pain and agony of the sick and dying. The ship’s crew punished and ridiculed the Africans, and played an integral role in maintaining their inhumane conditions. Punishments varied in severity and much depended on the character of ship’s captain. John Newton for example, a famous Liverpool Captain, put the young male enslaved “slightly in thumb screws to obtain confession”. Teeth chisels were sometimes used to force enslaved Africans who went on hunger strike, to eat. Whips, such as the ‘cat-o-nine-tails’ and the manatea, a whip made from the hide of a manatee, were also used. The enslaved were also placed in shackles and irons as punishment. The crew also often raped the women enslaved on board.
The Testimony
Testimony of Olaudah Equiano
(kidnapped slave who eventually bought his freedom)
Capture:
Generally when the grown people in the neighbourhood were gone far in the fields to labour, the children assembled together in some of the neighbours' premises to play; and commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant, or kidnapper, that might come upon us; for they sometimes took those opportunities of our parents absence to attack and carry off as many as they could seize. One day, as I was watching at the top of a tree in our yard, I saw one of those people come into the yard of our next neighbour but one, to kidnap, there being many stout young people in it. Immediately on this I gave the alarm of the rogue, and he was surrounded by the stoutest of them, who entangled him with cords, so that he could not escape till some of the grown people came and secured him. But alas! ere long it was my fate to be thus attacked, and to be carried off, when none of the grown people were nigh. One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got over our walls and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on, when we reached a small house where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short time. The next morning we left the house, and continued travelling all the day. For a long time we had kept the woods, but at last we came into a road which I believed I knew. I had now some hopes of being delivered; for we had advanced but a little way before I discovered some people at a distance, on which I began to cry out for their assistance: but my cries had no other effect than to make them tie me faster and stop my mouth, and then they put me into a large sack. They also stopped my sister's mouth, and tied her hands; and in this manner we proceeded till we were out of the sight of these people. When we went to rest the following night they offered us some victuals; but we refused it; and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. But alas! we were soon deprived of even the small comfort of weeping together.
Middle Passage
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave-ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, which I am yet at a loss to describe, nor the then feelings of my mind. When I was carried on board I was immediately handled, and tossed up, to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded.. that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in this belief… When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate, and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted.
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely… At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo…The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers.”
One day, when we had a smooth sea, and a moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings, and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example; and I believe many more would soon have done the same, if they had not been prevented by the ship’s crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were, in a moment, put down under the deck; and there was such a noise and confusion amongst the people of the ship as I never heard before, to stop her, and get the boat to go out after the slaves. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery.
*extra - Testimony of Captain Luke Collingwood
(ship captain who threw 133 slaves overboard )
Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse a well-serving honorable man of murder. I acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner for the cause. I acted in the interest of my ship to protect the safety of my crew. To question the judgment of an experienced well-traveled captain is ludicrous, especially when talking of slaves. The case is the same as if horses had been thrown overboard. God himself knows that blacks are no more than property. He has punished them for their betrayal. Their dark skin signifies the Mark of Cain. It is only right that they pay for their sins with servitude.